With the proliferation of the Internet has also come the proliferation of blogging and social networking A social network is a social structure made of individuals (or organizations) called “nodes,” which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, etc. A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as email and instant messaging services.
Social networking has encouraged new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people.
While it could be said that email and websites have most of the essential elements of social network services, the idea of proprietary encapsulated services has gained popular uptake recently.
The main types of social networking services are those which contain category divisions (such as former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust.
One problem that has arisen with the advent of social networking sites is that enterprise employees utilize enterprise equipment and company time to either view or engage in social networking behavior. In some instances, employees have been known to blog at work and upload content to social network sites. The obvious problem with this behavior is that company time is being wasted and employee productivity decreases. A further problem, however, is that if an employee is allowed to engage in a social network or blog from an enterprise device, there is a real chance that the employee might divulge important and proprietary enterprise information via the social network, either advertently or inadvertently. As an example, there is the possibility that an employee may share company trade secrets via a blog or social network interface. Once this information is committed to the public domain, the harm is irreparable.
It would be advantageous from an enterprise perspective to block an enterprise user's ability to post content to a blog, social network, micro-blog or the like when they are utilizing enterprise equipment. While this raises obvious freedom of speech concerns, there is a legitimate enterprise interest that should be protected if enterprise equipment is being utilized.
While some solutions have been developed to restrict an enterprise user's ability to view web content from an enterprise device, there has been little development in restricting an enterprise user's ability to post content to a web site. Present solutions do not facilitate the blocking of posted content. Rather, they only block viewed content. This will not limit a company's exposure based on an employee's behavior when interacting with a blog or social network, unless the employee is completely blocked from viewing the blog or social network. Such extreme view blocking is not favored by many enterprises, so an alternative solution is required.